God Mother – Vilseledd

Lean and Mean

The Pitch:Party Smasher Inc. (Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan) opens the floodgates for the new album from Stockholm, Sweden’s God Mother. “Across 14 tracks, God Mother packs hardcore, grind, sludge, and noise into lethal projectiles…The sound is electrifying – inspired as much by the grinding speed of Nasum and Rotten Sound as by the almighty weight of the Melvins.” Also FFO Converge.

At 14 songs in 30 minutes, Vilseledd is lean and mean

What I Like: Grindcore comes on a pretty broad spectrum, and I tend to find myself magentized towards its poles of either extremely ugly, blackened madness or hardcore/mathcore-influenced controlled chaos. God Mother fits best into the latter category. While the music of Vilseledd is impressively fast and plenty abrasive, there’s a certain order flowing through the technical proficiency of the instruments. Put simply, it’s a little more “43% Burnt” than “Gravedancer,” which further clarifies why it caught the attention of Ben Weinman. And in addition to crafting very concise blasts of aggression with each track, God Mother bring the same compositional mastery to the album as a whole. At 14 songs in 30 minutes, Vilseledd is lean and mean; avoiding common grind sins of either bloating with filler or leaving the listener unfulfilled. Furthermore, the pacing is solid with plenty of ups and downs.

Critiques: I still feel like these guys have a few more tricks up their sleeves that they are holding back. The next natural step for these guys is to get a little experimental without losing their sight on creating tight, engaging tracks.

The Verdict: I think this recommendation is best closed with the words of Mr. Weinman himself, “After 20 years of touring the world and playing thousands of shows with thousands of bands, it is hard to impress me. But Sweden has done it again. God Mother is an undeniable force majeure that demands attention like bands did in the old days, by just being that fucking good. Torch, officially passed!”

FlightofIcarus is a father, licensed counselor, and full time metalhead. When he is not working and spending time with family, he is writing furiously to promote underground bands on his own site, Metal Trenches. He believes staunchly in writing only constructive reviews, and his favorite bands include Dark Tranquillity, Enslaved, Poison the Well, and Deftones. You can also buy his ebook, The ABC’s of Black Metal.